


Asagao Academy: Rise of the Zombies

by Fandom_Trash224, quantumducky



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Descriptions of gore, Everybody's a lil gay for each other tbh, F/F, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, hooooo BOY
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2018-06-06 22:58:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6773710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandom_Trash224/pseuds/Fandom_Trash224, https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumducky/pseuds/quantumducky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Normal Boots Club accepted Hana Mizuno into their club after winning the tournament, they had all gone to the club room to celebrate their victory. Hana had brought her girlfriend and roommate, Mai, and everybody had a pretty good time. The next morning though, everybody discovered that an infection had swept the world, and suddenly found themselves fighting for their lives in a zombie-filled world, just like those video games they loved to play. </p><p>This, however, was no video game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Your Hand in Mine

Paul rushed into the desolate classroom, Nick and Josh following close behind. When he was sure both of them were inside, he slammed the door shut, trying not to puke when he heard the sickening crunch of bone. He probably just bashed something’s face in, hopefully a zombie and not another human. He’d been dealing with enough shit for the past few weeks without having to deal with the guilt of bashing another person’s face in.

 

Paul pulled himself out of his thoughts and locked the door, before moving to help Nick and Josh block up the door so that nothing could get inside. That didn’t stop them from trying, though, as he could hear the damned walkers banging on the only way in and out. They were trapped.

 

When they were done, the three young men backed away from the door, and looked out of the classroom’s window into the courtyard, watching the reanimated corpses of people who were once their closest friends shuffle around in search of their next feast of human flesh. Their eyes devoid of any healthy color, and instead a gross, mucus-like color. Their skin varying shades of sickly yellow, wounds and sores visible through their ragged clothes.

 

Paul gagged, still not used to the sight of the dead being able to walk, save for what was on T.V. and in video games. But honestly, nothing could’ve prepared him, or really anyone, for the actual experience. The adrenaline of being chased, the fear of your now unsure survival, the sickening _crunch_ of a walker’s skull underneath a blunt object, the constant, disgusting smell of rotting flesh that would never come out of clothes, no matter how much Joshlina washed them.

 

Nothing could’ve prepared them, and certainly nothing could’ve predicted it, just like in those games in movies had always said. _It came out of nowhere. A sudden virus has swept the world. There is no cure._

 

“There’s no way out…” Nick said, glancing around the room at everything. Honestly, Paul couldn’t disagree, and by the looks of it, neither could Josh. There was one door, which was barricaded with zombies on the other side, three large windows that opened to a two-story drop, and the classroom was virtually empty, save for a few desks, a cabinet, and all other things that were mostly used before the outbreak.

 

A silent dread settled across the room, thickening the air into what felt like poison, and soon Paul was trying hard to, well, to not cry. He pressed his forehead against the chilled windowpane. Was this how Hana felt all those times she had begun to cry, before and after the outbreak? Complete and total despair? Probably, but for all that he knew, Hana was gone now. That thought didn’t exactly lift his mood.

 

What did lift his mood, even if just a little bit, was feeling another hand slip into his own, which had been dangling uselessly at his side the whole time. Paul could tell it was Nick’s, but don’t ask him how. At this point, not even Paul himself knew.

 

“It’s going to be okay.” Nick said. Paul could tell he was smiling, even though he wasn’t looking at him. All three people in the room knew it was a lie, but it was the kind that was welcome. Paul turned around to face his two boyfriends, who looked just about as scared as he did, but he knew they were trying to comfort him. Maybe even themselves.

 

A loud bang on the door caused the three to turn their heads at the door, and the biggest thing they noticed was the large crack that was now slowly inching its way up the glass window of the door. The room’s mood decreased more and more as the former writers of “Continue?” watched it spread slowly, each bang to the door threatening to shatter the glass. Once they got through that…

 

Paul felt Nick’s hand tighten around his, and Josh joined them, taking Paul’s other hand. Paul pulled them close to him, trying to make these last few (yet agonizingly long) moments last. The three trembled silently, Nick taking somewhat shaking breaths and Josh refusing to look at the door. Paul closed his eyes, not wanting to watch what was about to happen, his mind still trying to think of crazy ways to get out of this, but fear put a haze over it.

  
The glass shattered and the three stayed together, not ready for it, but glad they were still together. 


	2. Now we're back to the beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We gotta get back... Back to the past...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -pixies voice- i bet you thought this fic was dead and gone

**Several months in the past...**

Hana woke up in the clubroom surrounded by her new club-mates.  The victory from yesterday was still fresh in her mind, causing her to smile slightly.  She glanced over to her right and saw her beautiful girlfriend, Mai, who was hugging Hana’s arm and drooling.  Under most circumstances, this would be kind of gross, but she was too happy to mind.

She sat up slowly, trying not to disturb Mai, and looked around at everyone else in the room.  Most of the boys were still asleep.  Continue? had become a single, many-limbed entity in one corner.  The rest of them were sleeping against the wall or just in the middle of the floor.  The only person up besides Hana was Shane.  He’d probably been awake for a while and was sitting against the wall working on something.  They made accidental eye contact and he acknowledged her with a nod before going back to ignoring her.

It was quiet.  Hana appreciated that, after the craziness of last night.  The sun spilling in through the windows warmed her and had the effect of making her want to cuddle up to Mai and go back to sleep.  But… something was making her uneasy.

It was probably just her anxiety.  No, she figured it out.  It was _too_ quiet- no birds, nothing.  Maybe they just… didn’t feel like making their bird noises or whatever today?  She reassured herself that it was nothing to worry about.

Outside, someone screamed.

The sudden sharp noise was enough to startle Hana out of her half-asleep stupor.  Shane just about jumped out of his skin, nearly dropping his notebook onto the floor. The two glanced at each other for a moment before Hana moved to slowly wake up her amazing drooling girlfriend.

After a bit of convincing, Mai finally let go of Hana’s arm, wiping the last bits of drool from her mouth and looking around the room sleepily. Shane had already woken up most of the club, and was now trying to shake Jirard awake. It took a while, but eventually all of the Normal Boots (plus Mai) were awake and trying to rub the sleep out of their eyes.

“What’s the big idea? Why are you waking us up at the crack of dawn?” Jon asked, Jacques still perched in the “nest” he’d made of Jon’s hair.

“We heard a scream. Figured we should wake you all up.” Shane replied, his expression neutral. This reply didn’t seem to appease Jon, who opened his mouth to say something more when he was swiftly interrupted by PBG from the window.

“Uh, guys? I think y’all should come see this…”

Slight glances were exchanged before, one-by-one, each of them looked out the window.  When Hana got there, the horrified looks of her peers weren’t helping the uneasy feeling she had.

When she finally looked out the window, she knew why.

“Oh my god…” Hana whispered, taking in the scene before them.

Outside the window, there were dozens of students, which was normal under most circumstances, seeing as they were at a school and all, but this was not a normal circumstance.  The students, from afar, didn’t look quite… alive. When Hana let her gaze wander to the ones closer to where they were, and she felt her stomach do flip-flops and loop-de-loops.

Their skin, from what she could see, was mottled with patches of different yellows, only interrupted by large patches of what Hana thought may be decaying skin. She could see their faces clearly, but what she could see made her want to throw up just about everything she had eaten the night before. One or two were missing bits of their jaw, others she could see the bone of their intact jaws through their thinning skin.

Hana backed away just in time to watch Jared run over to the wastebasket in the corner and throw up. Satch was by his side almost instantly, assuming the role of the mom friend per usual.

“Jesus Christ!” Jon exclaimed, jerking back slightly and causing Jacques to squirm from atop his head. PBG seemed too stunned to speak, Josh turned away as Nick and Paul exchanged glances of “what the actual fuck”, and Shane just stared on, horrified.

After several moments of stunned silence and retching from the corner, Jon spoke again.

“Welp, we gotta get outta here.”

Jared slowly turned away from his wastebasket, looking as if he were seeing floating equations in front of him that he didn’t understand.

“I’m sorry,” he said, sounding incredulous, “but how on Earth are we going to do that?”

Jon shrugged, as if the answer were obvious.

“I mean, we play video games like this _aaalllll_ the time! We’ve pretty much been training for this moment our entire lives!”

The room went silent again, everybody looking either confused or unamused, like the personification of ellipses.

“Jon, what the fuck,” Jacques said from atop his owner’s head. “This isn’t a video game what the actual hell.”

Shane nodded in agreement, finally managing to pull himself from the window.

“If we try half the shit they pull in those games, we’d probably end up killing ourselves.” He said.

“Plus, we don’t even have weapons, much less guns!” Jirard added, earning a nod from Satch.

“Well, we _could_ have a weapon--” Paul began, but was cut off by Jared, who was still on the floor next to the wastebasket.

“I am _not_ giving you a can of hairspray so you can create a makeshift flamethrower, Paul. We’ve discussed this.”

Paul pouted slightly, but didn’t pursue it further (though Hana knew he probably would later).  PBG sighed.

“Jon’s kinda right, though. If we stay here, we’re gonna run out of snacks eventually. And even before then, we’re probably going to get cornered by those things anyways. We’re kinda trapped in the club room right now.” PBG said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

“This is quite the conundrum,” Satch stated, then turned to Hana.  “You and Mai have been pretty quiet throughout this, what do you think we should do?”

Hana turned to look at Mai, who was staring back at her.

“I trust your decision, Hana. I love you no matter what you choose.” Mai said, smiling slightly.

Hana turned back to the boys, feeling like she was at a crossroads.  This had been happening to her a lot since arriving at Asagao, but this was probably the most important choice she was ever going to make there. If they stayed, they would definitely die, whether via starvation or zombie attacks, but they could possibly have time to formulate a plan. If they left, they had the chance of being safe, but that was only _if_ they could manage to get out.   But still, there was a much better chance of survival if they weren’t backed into a corner.

“I-I think we should leave. If we get pinned here by the zombies, there’s no chance we’d survive, but if we can get out of here, we can probably find some weapons somewhere, maybe more supplies, and come back.” Hana said, surprised with how calm she sounded.

The boys all nodded one-by-one in agreement, though some seemed less pleased about the development.

Everyone was still looking at her now, like they expected her to have any idea how to actually do it.  “That, uh... that’s all,” she concluded awkwardly, praying that someone else would say something.

Jirard spoke up after a torturous few seconds.  “I think I know how we can get out of the building.  You guys know about the tunnels under the school, right?”

“You’ve mentioned them once or twice,” Shane deadpanned.  As his roommate, he was frequently on the receiving end of the other boy’s enthusiasm for anything from small plastic cats to the layout of the school.

“Well, if we just take those, getting out of the building will be a piece of cake!  They go pretty much everywhere, and there’s even a _secret_ exit to the athletic shed.”

PBG frowned.  “Wait, aren’t they all secret _already?”_

“Well, yeah, but… this one’s even more secret.”

Mai interrupted before that particular conversation could go any further.  “Talk about degrees of secrecy later, boys,” she reminded them.  “We need to get down _there_ before all those zombies figure out we’re up _here._  ...Don’t look at me like that, what else could they be?”

Satch stepped forward and put his hand on the door handle, and everyone turned to look at him as if magnetized.  He took a deep breath.  “Okay.  I’m going to count down and then open the door.  The hall might not be empty, so everyone get ready.  Three… two… one…”

As quietly as possible, he pulled the door open.


	3. Secret Tunnel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little warning, if you thought earlier chapters had gross gore, this one is. really really bad. tread carefully y'all

At first, when Satch opened the club room door and peered into the hallway, he didn’t see any major threats.  However, as he slowly crept his way into the eerily silent hallway, he spotted a lone zombie in the corridor and froze.  Upon realizing that the zombie had not seemed to notice them, he turned to his fellow club members. 

“Okay guys,” he whispered, “you can come out, just be very, very quiet. There’s a zombie down the left side.” 

PBG was the first to walk out of the door, and upon seeing the grotesque walking corpse let out an involuntary shriek of terror.  So much for “very, very quiet.”  The zombie turned to face them, and seemed to try to say something.  Unfortunately, due to the fact that its vocal chords were rotting away, all the came out were a series of disgusting hissing noises and spittle.  

Deciding to completely forego Satch’s stealth plan, Jared, the third one out of the club room, shouted, 

“Run!” 

Within moments, all of the Normal Boots were out of the club room and running down the hall from the lone undead student.  It almost felt silly, a group of eleven teens running from a single zombie, but none of them were really equipped to fight a zombie, physically or mentally. 

Once they made it onto the stairs, stealth mode was re-activated and Satch took the lead once again.  He paused the group at the landing of the stairs and slowly shimmied his way down the staircase, keeping as close to the wall as possible.  As he neared the bottom of the stairs , he could hear dozens of feet shuffling along the floor, and even though Satch really didn’t want to, he took a peek around the corner and saw an entire room of zombies.  All of them were walking in the same direction, towards a corner of the room.  At first, he didn’t see why they would go that way.  Then, two bright pink hair clips caught his eye. 

Mimi Santos was cornered by a dozen or so zombies, and Satch wanted to do something to help her, he really really did, but he had his own friends to worry about, first and foremost. Mimi looked absolutely terrified as the horde slowly enveloped her, and the sight of the undead all scrambling to get a piece of Mimi combined with the god-awful smell of a dozen zombies in a single area caused Satch to look away, sliding up the staircase a few steps. That’s when the screaming started. 

Satch did not want to look.  Satch did not  _ want _ to look.  Satch  _ did not want to look _ .  But Satch looked around the corner anyways, his curiosity getting the better of him.  He had made a mistake. 

Somehow, Mimi had ended up in the center of the group, being pulled in all different directions by the zombified students. Some were biting into her arms, others her torso, one had even managed to get its teeth around her ear.  Satch stared in horror as the zombies practically tore Mimi Santos apart, limbs slowly being chewed and pulled off. The smell of blood and rot was getting worse and worse. Satch had to swallow the vomit in his throat.  Soon, there was little left of the person known as Mimi Santos.  At that point, the zombies were less distracted by the prospect of tearing a student apart, and more distracted by fighting and shoving one another to try and get at the limbs and flesh and various other parts that were still left.

Satch, being the smart boy he was, realized just  _ how  _ distracted the zombies were, and realized there probably wasn’t going to be a better chance than this to get past them.  He made his way back up to the landing and quickly warned everybody of the upcoming scene.  Mai’s face paled at the mention of Mimi’s name, but she didn’t say anything. After one final check, Satch gave the command over to Jirard.  Jirard then led them to a normal looking door next to the stairs, which opened to reveal a small staircase leading downward into a tunnel.  Once everybody was downstairs and safely in the tunnel, Jirard closed the door behind them, and the zombies in the room were none the wiser. 

The tunnels were lit by long strips of LED lights along the cool, stone walls. The tunnels were wide enough for the people to walk two-by-two, although it seemed Continue was determined to walk three-by-three, as they squished against each other and kept muttering things like “your elbow is in my rib” and “which one of you didn’t put on deodorant”.  It was almost enough to draw a chuckle from Satch, but the mental image of Mimi was seared in his mind, and prevented him from laughing.  Jirard seemed to know his way around the tunnel system very, very well, as he didn’t even ever seem to hesitate when it came to forks in the road.  He just walked on, chatting quietly with Shane, who was completely silent.  Not so much of a chat, as it was a one-sided conversation, really. 

They seemed to walk for what seemed like an eternity, pockets of silence that would get filled in by either Continue’s constant mutter, Jirard’s one-sided conversation, or Mai’s and Hana’s hushed reassurances to one another were quite common. Finally, the tunnel seemed to narrow until everybody had to walk in a single file line, much to the dismay of Continue. Jirard stopped in front of a ladder and climbed up it, opening a hatch in the ceiling of the tunnel that seemed to lead to the athletics shed over by the soccer field. 

Once everybody was out of the tunnel, they stood somewhat awkwardly in the crowded athletics shed.  After some discussion, each of the members of the club took various items from the shed to use as improvised weapons.  When PBG got strange looks for taking a soccer ball, he defended his choice by saying, 

“I can kick a zombie in the face with a soccer ball!  Don’t worry guys, I got this!”

Nobody was in the mood to argue, so they let it happen.  Not to mention the fact that Continue pretty much filled their pockets with golf balls to go with their golf clubs, so it wasn’t the weirdest thing someone had picked up.  Honestly, the only reason they got the golf clubs and balls was because Satch refused to let them use the riding lawnmower, so filling their pockets with golf balls was their form of “protest”.  

Once everybody was geared up, they exited the shed.  Luckily for everyone, the amount of zombies on the soccer field was a grand total of four. Two were wandering the bleachers on the leftmost side of the field, one was  _ next _ to those bleachers, and one was smack dab in the center of the field. 

Needless to say, it was fairly easy to get past them and onto the other side of the field, where PBG opened up a gate in the fence, leading them officially off-campus. 

Once outside the fence, they began talking about where to go. 

“Maybe we should go to town and get some help?” Josh suggested. Jared raised an eyebrow at him.

“Uh… Isn’t town full of people, though? Wouldn’t it be a better idea to  _ avoid  _ places with a lot of people?” The sparkly boy said. Most of the group muttered in agreement except for Mai. 

“Well, it could just be that everybody got some bad food or something and it’s only the school that got zombified,” Mai argued “We don’t really know unless we actually go into town, really.”

“Plus,” Shane added “There may be more supplies in town. Food, water bottles, better weapons, etcetera.”

After putting it to a vote, the group decided to make their way to the town. As they walked together, Jon began idly chatting with PBG. 

“Man, I hope we find some bandages or something.  This one is starting to itch.”  Jon said, pulling up his sleeve slightly to itch at the bandages on his arm.

“Oh yeah!  You didn’t have the bandages at the tournament or when you went out.   What happened, dude?  You trip or something?”  PBG said, tossing his soccer ball from hand to hand.

“Pff, nah man.  This crazy homeless dude bumped into me and I was like ‘Hey! Watch where you’re going man!’ and this crazy dude doesn’t say anything, so I’m like ‘Dude! Come on!’ and then the guy turns around and bites my arm!” 

The group slows to a stop at Jon’s words, slowly turning to face him. 

“He…  Bit your arm?”  PBG asked slowly. 

“Yeah!  Weird right?”

The group stayed silent for a few moments, before Jacques spoke. 

“Jon you dumb stupid fuck.  That’s how people get turned into zombies in the games.” 

Jon’s face fell, and he glanced down at his bandaged arm.  PBG took a look at Jon overall. A  _ really  _ good look.  He did seem a bit paler than usual, and overall he didn’t look like his usual self.  Part of PBG was mad that he hadn’t noticed it before, but then again, they were a bit preoccupied with not dying, so it wasn’t really their fault. 

After a few more moments of uneasy silent glances, Jared looked at Jon.

“Jon, buddy…”  Jared said, putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“I know, I know.  I gotta stay behind.  It’s fine.”  Jon said, putting his hands up in surrender.  

“Hey, we’ll come back once we’ve figured out what’s going on, okay?  We’ll help you get better, and then we’ll have a Stomp Sisters tournament, alright?  There’s nobody around here, you should be safe for the couple hours it will take us to get to town and back.”  

Jon smiled and nodded.

Once everybody said their goodbyes to Jon, the rest of the group continued making their way back to town, leaving behind a waving Jon and his robotic bird friend. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it didn't take a whole year to update again woot


	4. Breathe

As Hana looked out onto the streets of the abandoned city, she began to think that the whole plan they made was a very, very bad idea.  Even in the very outskirts, the streets were pretty much  _ crawling  _ with zombies, some of which were actually crawling.  After several moments of stunned and concerned silence, Jared spoke up.

“What did I say?  Didn’t Shane and I say this was a bad idea?  Because this is a bad idea.” 

Shane nodded with a slight “mhm.”  Mai gave the two of them a look and turned back to the scene laid out before them.

“Well, what do we do now?  It’s not like we can go back to the school,” Mai said.  “It’s not much better there.”

“Well,”  Hana said,  “We could try to hide out in one of the houses here.  It doesn’t look like anybody’s home.”

“Hana Mizuno, are you suggesting that we  _ break into _ someone else’s  _ home _ ?”  Paul asked incredulously.  Hana blinked in surprise.

“...Yes?” 

Paul, Nick, and Josh all grinned at each other and said simultaneously, “Sweet.” 

It didn’t take too long to find a house that was unlocked and not completely looted, which was somewhat surprising, considering the fact that it was the first day of the end of the world.  The exterior of the house looked like one of those houses that you tend to see in every movie ever: one story with pretty white trim, flowers in the windows and on the porch.

The group filed into the house one-by-one into what seemed to be the living room.  To the immediate left, there was a doorway that led into a separate hallway.  On the wall next to the doorway was a flat screen TV, and next to that was a small bookshelf.  To their right was a couch with a small table beside it.  Jared, upon entering, stepped out of his shoes and nudged them into line with those of the family that lived… well, used to live in this house.

“Dude,” PBG said,  “what are you doing?” 

“Uh, what are  _ you  _ doing?”  Jared replied, looking mildly flustered. 

“Not taking off my shoes in a random house in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, for one.”

Jared looked down, apparently as surprised as anyone.  Then he put his shoes back on with a bit more force than necessary and sent out his best “this never happened, you saw nothing” vibes.

“Guys, come on,”  Satch interjected, stopping the callout before PBG could try to continue it.  “We should split up and search the house, just in case there’s some extra supplies around.” 

“Or just in case the previous owners are still… hanging around,”  Shane added. Satch nodded in approval of the addition, and they all got to work splitting into teams. 

Continue ended up being assigned the garage, Hana and Mai were assigned the hallway next to the entrance, Jirard and Shane were assigned the kitchen, and Satch, Jared, and PBG were assigned the master bedroom. 

~~~

Hana and Mai cautiously entered the dim hallway, Mai leading the way for her girlfriend. From what she could see, the hallway went in two directions, each way ending with a door that was shut. Right across from them was a hall closet, and next to the closet seemed to be a bathroom. 

“Hana, do you think we should split up and check the doors or stick together?” Mai asked in a hushed tone, just in case. 

Hana thought about it.  If they stayed together, there was less of a chance of them getting hurt.  But if they split up, they could probably get it over with faster, which was really ideal for Hana right then.  Besides, if something happen, the other one was only down a short hallway, so nothing too bad could happen. 

“I think we should split up,” Hana answered.  “So we can cover more ground, you know?” 

Mai nodded and said, “Gotcha.  Holler if you need me, okay babe?” 

“Okay!”  Hana said, then turned to the left side of the hall.  As she approached the door, she held her breath and opened it slowly.  Despite the fact that the house seemed to be fairly new, the door made an almost obscenely loud creaking noise as it opened, causing Hana to cringe slightly. 

As she slowly entered the room, the natural afternoon light came in from the large windows on the far wall lit up her side of the hallway. Once she was inside the room, she gave a general glance-around and didn’t see anything overly interesting or useful.  There was a bed in the left corner of the room shoved up against the wall.  Next to that was a small bedside table with a whole menagerie of toys and small trinkets.  The room, with its purple walls covered in posters of famous actors and musicians, seemed to belong to a kid that was probably around their early teens.  Eventually, all of her searching lead her to the closet, and it was in that moment that Hana Mizuno hit the motherload.  Sitting there in a rather large pile, she saw what looked like the entire snack section of a convenience store.  The kid had just about everything: Hi-Chew, Pocky, potato chips, even some Bisuko.  Wow.  This kid loved their snacks.  That was good news for Hana.

“Mai, come see what I found,” she called quietly, returning to the doorway.

Mai poked her head out from the room at the other end of the hallway.  “What?”  She trotted down the hall to see what her girlfriend was so excited about, and lit up a bit at the stash of junk food Hana presented like a magician pulling things out of the air.  “That’s great!  My room didn’t have anything useful, just Legos all over the floor.”  She took a better look at the room they were standing in and bit her lip.  “Both of these rooms… it looks like they belong to kids, doesn’t it?  I hope they got out of here okay...”

Hana looked away, smile fading.  She’d almost managed to forget the reason they were rummaging through an abandoned house.  “I hope so, too.”

Meanwhile, Shane and Jirard were looking through cabinets in the small kitchen.  They were in luck, sort of: it seemed these people had done their day’s grocery shopping early, then fled before lunchtime.  On the other hand, their group was twice the size of the family that lived here, and most of the canned food in the house was gone along with its inhabitants.  They would need to find a way to get more, maybe as soon as tomorrow.

It didn’t feel good, what they were doing.  Shane couldn’t push away the thought of how they were essentially stealing from people who could very well have died without making it out of the city, given the state of the main streets.  He opened the drawers and cabinets as quietly as possible and tried not to disturb anything unnecessarily, feeling very much like an intruder and a bit like he was desecrating a tomb.  There was nothing to say that wouldn’t make it worse, so they went about the unofficial inventory in near-silence.  Under the circumstances, the repetitive thumping that started up without warning from the other side of the door by the refrigerator was like gunshots.

The boys jumped at the first bang and looked at each other.

The silence was broken now, no point trying to preserve it any longer.  “That’s… That might not be good,” said Jirard with a nervous laugh.

“No shit.”  Shane grabbed the biggest knife he could find before approaching the door.  He reached toward the handle and looked at Jirard, who looked around uncertainly for a second before picking up a sturdy-looking skillet and nodding at him.  Shane held the knife out in front of himself, wishing he could keep it steady, and wrenched the door open.  They both looked into the room, then made eye contact and started laughing.  Shane sighed in relief and put back the knife he’d just used to threaten an off-balance washing machine.

In the garage, Continue? didn’t seem to be having much luck finding food, surprising absolutely no one.  However, what they did find was power tools and a car, which could prove to be very useful for their little group.  As they continued searching through, Josh took a peek down the set of stairs in the garage, staring into the darkened basement.  The three teens exchanged a glance, and Paul, flashlight in hand, began descending down the wooden staircase into the unexplored depths of the house, his two boyfriends following suit behind him.  

As they neared the bottom, Paul slowly shone his flashlight around the room, taking in the sight of the barren walls and exposed wooden framework through the narrow cone of light before settling it on the far left corner, where he spotted four bodies huddled together.  As the other two reached the bottom, the smell of decay finally seemed to fully hit Paul’s nostrils, and he recoiled back instinctively.  In the process, he bumped into Nick, who bumped into Josh and caused all three of them to fall down the stairs into the basement.  

“Ow,”  Paul groaned from underneath his two surprisingly heavy boyfriends, who both slowly rolled off of him.  Welp, looks like they’re in the basement now.  Continue? carefully got to their collective feet, checking each other over for any major injuries, because who knows what they could’ve fallen on?  However, all activity between the three ceased when a soft hissing noise filled the stagnant air of the basement.  Slowly, the three teens turned to look towards the four bodies in the corner, one of which was now moving.  Oh boy. 

Meanwhile, in the master bedroom, Jared, Satch, and PBG were opening drawers and searching through the closet, finding spare clothes and prescriptions for medicines that had unknown uses, but might end up being useful.  As the three gathered their supply haul together, a blood-curdling scream emanated from the garage.  PBG dropped his small stack of clothes and made a beeline for where he remembered Continue? to be, Satch following suit.  Along the way, the two bumped into Mai and Shane, who had their own weapons ready for whatever they may have to face.  The group rushed into the garage, and were confused to find it empty until they realized that the sounds of a scuffle were coming from the basement below. 

By the time they got down there, they watched as Paul smacked a small child in the face with a golf club, much to their horror and confusion.  However, both of those feelings were whisked away when they realized, oh shit, the people there were zombies, and he had smacked a small child  _ zombie _ in the face with a golf club, and not an actual living small child.  Well, okay, the horror was still there, but the confusion was slightly alleviated.  

When the group plus Continue? finally resurfaced into the main room, everyone else was waiting there with the collected supplies.  After taking inventory of everything (snacks, some canned food, clothes, unknown pills, some knives and other items for weapons), everybody just… sat there.  Nobody talked, nobody moved around, nobody really did  _ anything _ .  They all just sat there, thinking quietly in the fading light inside the house.  It seemed that the only reason someone ended up getting up was to light the lantern they had found in the garage after dispatching the family of zombies to keep the group from being plunged into complete darkness.  When someone finally spoke, it was PBG in a quiet, yet authoritative voice, the kind he tended to reserve for when Jon wouldn’t be at club meetings for whatever reason and he had to step in as the other leader of the club. 

“Alright guys, I think it’s time we, uh, talked about what’s happened today.” 

The others all slowly nodded in agreement as best as they could, some having a harder time than others considering they were cuddling their significant other(s).  It was silent again for a few moments. 

“So, uh… Anybody want to start or… ?” PBG continued.  Satch stood, taking the focus off of PBG and his awkward attempts at conversation. 

“So, the basic knowledge we have currently is this: zombies are real, and they are walking among us.  A lot of people are dead, or… probably dead.  We’re not one-hundred percent certain it’s transmitted through bodily fluids and open wounds, but it’s a safe assumption, considering how zombie apocalypses tend to go in most fictional situations.  And, you know, diseases.”

“Which is why we left Jon behind, right?” Hana asked quietly, shifting in her girlfriend’s embrace.  Satch nodded. 

“Exactly.  We also know that it has spread not only throughout the school, but it would seem the whole town as well.  Who knows where else they could be?” 

“So,”  Shane said “no matter where we go, there’s the possibility of us having to deal with zombies.” 

“So no matter what, we’re kinda screwed, huh?”  PBG said, reclining back on the couch he was sitting on.  Uncomfortable silence fell over the room once more as they all looked around at each other, the realization that this was only day  _ one  _ of what may be the rest of their lives finally sinking in.  

“...Shit,”  Paul said softly.  Hana couldn’t help but agree with that sentiment.  

“So… now that that’s all out of the way,”  PBG said in a forcibly upbeat tone, almost as if he were trying to shift the mood, “we should probably figure out a plan for getting more supplies.  What we have now looks good for a little while, but I’m  _ pret-ty _ sure we’re gonna get sick of junk food and Spam, not to mention we haven’t found any water, so... we should probably stock up a bit more.” 

He had a point.  Hana knew that, while it seemed that they did have a decent amount of food, a lot of it wasn’t exactly good for them.  But water?  Couldn’t they just run the tap or something?

“Couldn’t we just drink tap water?” Hana asked.  Shane shot her a somewhat annoyed look.

“Because, Hana, if a zombie ended up wherever this family got their water from, the entire water supply could be infected and we wouldn’t realize it until we were all halfway turned. Hell, it could’ve been where the outbreak came from, for all we know.”  Shane said, annoyed at Hana’s apparently stupid question.  She didn’t think it was stupid, but Hana was pretty sure Shane thought everything she did was to annoy or spite him in some way.  Hana could see Mai shoot Shane a warning glance and Shane looked away, clearly still annoyed. 

“Yeah, what Shane said. We don’t know what water is safe and what water is infected, so it’s probably safer to deal with water bottles for now.”  Satch said in a much nicer way than Shane had.  Hana appreciated that. 

For a good chunk of the night, the group discussed their plans for supplies and sleeping arrangements, the latter ending in a rock, paper, scissors tournament to see who would get first pick of the rooms.  The winner ended up being Jared, who placed his stake in the room that Hana had found the junk food in all for himself.  Continue? got the master bedroom, since the three of them vehemently refused to sleep in different beds, much less rooms.  Hana and Mai managed to get the other kid’s room, but were joined by PBG and Jirard, who ended up having to sleep on the floor.  Shane and Satch took up the couch in the living room, having decided to keep watch through the night and take turns sleeping.  

As Hana drifted off to sleep, she couldn’t shake the bad feeling beginning to form in the pit of her stomach.  She quietly wished for their safety, and finally fell asleep in her girlfriend’s arms. 


	5. car trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few weeks into the apocalypse, everyone has settled into a new routine. Hana and Mai go on a supply run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh shit its the DOUBLE WHAMMY TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY
> 
> do we get some kind of irregular update schedule award for this

Mai and Hana descended yet another level into the oppressive darkness of an abandoned underground parking garage, breathing through their shirts.  The place smelled like death, probably because of all the dead bodies of people who didn’t quite make it to their cars.  The first few levels had already been picked clean of anything useful by other survivors, but they held out hope that no one had searched this far down yet.

The girls wouldn’t have come down this far, either, given the choice.  Hana’s flashlight did little to illuminate the maze of abandoned cars, especially when the beam swung wildly as she jumped at imagined noises.  Can you blame her?  Anything could be waiting for them in the darkness, and this far down, no one would even hear if they screamed.

Metal creaked ominously somewhere in the garage, echoes bouncing off the walls making it impossible to tell where the sound came from.  Hana gasped and grabbed Mai’s hand, almost dropping the flashlight.

“Don’t worry,”  Mai said, squeezing her hand.  “It was probably just a car settling.”

“ _ Probably _ is still  _ maybe not, _ ”  Hana muttered.  Still, she was the one with the flashlight, so she followed Mai ever further from the safety of the stairwell.

They cautiously approached the nearest car, shivering as a draft on their backs reminded them just how exposed they were, in this cavernous space where they couldn’t even see what might be coming up behind them.  Mai eased the driver’s side door open, leaned over and started rummaging through the glove compartment.  She dredged up a half-empty purse-sized bottle of hand sanitizer and a few band-aids, and pocketed them in turn.  Hana looked into the back seat, but found it empty except for a newspaper from several weeks ago.  It could have been the last paper ever printed, as far as she knew.  She tucked it under her arm for posterity, not that there was likely to be any.

The next few vehicles turned out to be locked.  Mai could have gotten them open with a bit of effort, but car alarms blaring their location to anyone and any _ thing _ nearby was the opposite of what they needed.  They moved on, feeling ever uneasier as they put multiple cars between themselves and the exit.  Hana found herself turning around every so often to shine the flashlight at the stairs just to make sure she still knew where they were.  Forgetting which way was out was pretty much the nightmare scenario here.

They had a stroke of luck with the next car they were able to get into, although it didn’t seem that way at first.  Mai opened the door and gagged at the stench of someone’s decomposing groceries.  Neither of them wanted to do this, but if there was anything salvageable in there… well, there were eight other people in their group, and they didn’t have a lot of food.  After digging through several shopping bags of rotting produce and moldy bread while trying not to breathe or touch anything, they were rewarded with a box of granola bars and half a dozen various canned foods, still good, which Hana dumped into her backpack.  Mai knew she picked up that hand sanitizer for a good reason.

They made their way through the rows of cars, walking as quietly as possible, gradually filling their bags with supplies.  A car near the back held their biggest find.

Hana shined her flashlight through the window and jumped back, covering her mouth to suppress a shriek.  There was a corpse in the driver’s seat.  Mai’s hand went to the handle of a baseball bat sticking out of her backpack and they both backed away carefully, but the dead man didn’t move.  Very, very slowly, they approached the car again.  Still nothing.  It seemed to be safe.  They couldn’t afford to pass up the valuable supplies that could be in there just because they got spooked by a perfectly ordinary dead body.

This time, Mai searched the back half of the car while Hana tentatively opened the front passenger door.  Eugh.  No matter how many dead people she’d dealt with by now, Hana was still convinced she would never get used to the smell.  There was a surprising amount of money in the glove compartment, not that it was worth anything now.  Not much useful.  Then she looked over at the dead man in the driver’s seat and stopped.

“Mai,”  she said, trying to keep her voice steady,  “I think I know how he died.”

Mai looked up.  “Oh.  Shit.”  The man’s hand was wrapped loosely around the handle of a gun.  He wasn’t… fresh… enough to easily see a bullet hole (not that they wanted to look that close anyway), but the only conclusion was that he’d shot himself.

“We… we need to get that, don’t we?”

Mai was silent for a moment as Hana walked around the car to join her by the driver’s door.  “Uh… Let me just…”  She opened the door, standing back, and poked the man with the end of her bat.  Nothing happened- he looked as dead as ever.  “Yeah, we’re gonna have to get that.  I can--”

Hana stopped Mai as she moved to reach for the gun.  “No, I can do it.  I- I’m doing it.”  She needed to stop depending on Mai to do all the scary things.  It was just a dead body.  She leaned into the car slightly and picked up the gun.

The man grabbed her wrist.

Hana screamed, fighting but unable to get away.  A second later Mai practically threw her out of danger and into the side of the van behind them.  No time to get the bat.  She made do with punching the man in the face so hard he lost part of his head.  He fell back into the car and stopped moving, and she slammed the door on him.  It was over before Hana’s scream had stopped echoing around the garage.

As soon as the immediate danger was past, Mai turned around to make sure Hana was okay.  Hana retrieved her flashlight from under the van and assured her girlfriend that she wasn’t hurt.  She hadn’t even dropped the gun, even though in the heat of the moment she briefly forgot it existed.

“Can we leave now?”  Hana was  _ not _ about to spend another minute longer than necessary in this stupid creepy car maze.  She found Mai’s hand and pulled her to the stairs.

Back aboveground, it was a cloudy day, but still bright enough to blind them for a minute.  They were lucky not to be ambushed, honestly, especially considering how quiet they weren’t with all the stuff in their bags.  When Hana could see again, she turned to look at Mai.  And stopped cold.

“Mai, y-your arm…”  There was a tear in the sleeve of Mai’s uniform jacket, and Hana could see blood.

Mai looked at her, eyes wide, then slowly lifted her arm to inspect it.  “It’s probably nothing,” she said, but her voice was strained.  “It must have got caught in the car door, or…”  She trailed off as she pulled her sleeve back to reveal an injury she couldn’t rationalize to be anything but a bite mark.

_ “Fuck.” _  Hana didn’t curse very often, but it was both a good way to sum up the situation and the most she could get out without her voice wavering.  She squeezed her eyes shut and fought to stay calm.  This wasn’t the time or place to let herself start crying.  “Okay.  Maybe it’s okay, maybe, maybe there’s something Satch can do…”

“Hana.”  Mai took her hand, but didn’t meet her eyes.  “I’m so sorry.  I don’t… think we should expect that.”

The sun emerged, but it didn’t do much to make the scene less bleak.  Even the plants seemed washed-out, not quite alive.  Hana gripped her girlfriend’s hand tightly, trying to come to terms with the fact that she was about to lose her.

“...You have to leave, don’t you.”

Mai still wouldn’t look at her.  She summoned up a smile-adjacent facial expression and replied, “I’ll go back to the others with you, at least.  I mean, nothing’s gonna happen  _ immediately, _ right?  Might as well help take this stuff back before… before I go.”

Hana nodded.  She still couldn’t quite believe this was really happening, and spending a little longer pretending it wasn’t sounded good to her.  “Thanks.”

They started back in the direction of the house the group had claimed as a base.  They didn’t speak, but walked as close together as they could without tripping despite the sun now beating down on them.  They didn’t want to waste any of the now very limited time they had together.


End file.
